Batman: Arkham Origins Review

The year is 1939, Alfred isn't in it, and Batman carries a gun. Oh, not that far back

When I reviewed Batman: Arkham City I called it a game I would never stop playing, and that was true. It’s been installed on my PC for two years and I’ve only just taken it off to make room for its successor, Arkham Origins. I mean, why do you need two similar Batman games installed? Unless the new one’s terrible and I want it wiped the second I’d finished it of course, but that could never happen. Could it? Read on to find out.

Okay, no more suspense, Arkham Origins isn’t perfect but it’s definitely not terrible. I’m going to try to avoid spoilers although I’ll obliquely mention areas of the story that impressed me, because the story is one of the main things I truly loved about the game. It was also the area I was most worried about. The general setup, that it’s early in Batman’s career and he’s already caused so many problems for organised crime that mob boss Roman Sionis (Black Mask) hires eight assassins to kill him on Christmas Eve, is well documented. My worry was that this would be the entire story as it’s a very videogamey setup – “defeat eight bosses so you can get to the final boss”. If WB Montreal had no imagination or only a strict time limit that could have been all we got.

Once more unto the breach dear super-friends...

Fortunately that’s not the case, as the plot quickly spins away from this. Several assassins have their own agendas for example, and Black Mask has more happening than he’s letting on. Batman will meet many villains for the first time, including and especially the Joker who’s the huge spanner-wrench in the plot. The nature of Batman and the Joker is explored like any good “first meeting” tale of these two should, as is Batman’s own personality. He starts off a dick, frankly, getting angry at Alfred for just talking to him and dismissing the GCPD cops he beats up as “in my way”, but over the game he’s tempered by the events. The one to come out best from Arkham Origins though is Bane, who got rather a rough deal in the last two games (appearing as a mindless brute rather than the intelligent and powerful force he should be) but finally the balance is redressed as Bane turns into arguably the main villain of the piece. The story’s got a few minor plot-holes (or just outright contradictions of Batman lore) but is otherwise great with some fun twists, and made me enjoy the whole experience overall.

In terms of gameplay, it won’t be much of a spoiler to say that Arkham Origins is just Arkham City but not as good or polished. There’s a chunk of Gotham City to explore freely, the often-imitated never-bettered combat devised by Rocksteady is back and nearly identical, the Riddler is sort-of back and hiding things around for you to find, and there are a number of additional missions and challenges to take on alongside the main storyline. It’s in the little details where WB Montreal’s copy-pasting of Arkham City shows up most though. The way AO’s Glue Grenade acts exactly like AC’s Ice Grenade, AO’s Server Relays acting exactly like AC’s Tyger Cameras, the way there aren’t ever any civilians out on the street despite it just being normal Gotham, there being places you simply can’t grapple on as if it was the wall of Arkham City, the Mad Hatter being in it, those kinds of things. Still, at least Joker doesn’t sing a song over the end credits, that’d really be derivative. Ahem.

Still, you have to remember that City was a really fun game, and there are differences to be noted here – some good, some admittedly bad. We’ll start with the good. Firstly the difficulty of the fights and quantity of thugs Batman faces have both been amped up. To counter this later on in the game Batman gains access to the Electrocutioner’s electro-gauntlets, which can be activated a short time into a fight, with which you can electro-smash through enemies (even through armour or shields) and immediately turn the tide in your favour. They’re optional though for people who like it tough. Another cool addition (or rather tweak) is how the Achievement/Challenges have been handled, such as “take out a room without using detective vision”, “glide 250 metres without using the grapple gun” or “do an inverted ledge takedown one-handed while whistling the star-spangled banner”. Instead of the free-for-all they were previously now they’re ranked and have to be beaten in order, with progressively more complicated requests. The coolest part is once all these challenges are complete you’re rewarded with a Dark Knight skin, which I suspect is Returns rather than Rises.

Then there’s the Crime Reconstructions, which have completely revamped the Crime Scenes from Rocksteady’s two Batman games and made them a lot more detective-y. They take place over a larger area (sometimes over several levels or buildings) and require you to track down key pieces of evidence to create a holographic video reconstruction of the crime, which can be forwarded and rewinded at will to help you find further evidence. It’s immensely cool and comes the closest out of all three Arkham games to make you feel like a real detective.

The Deathstroke boss fight is really difficult

Now on to the bad differences, which aren’t actually “bad” to be fair but simply “not as good as Arkham City”. Firstly the Riddler collectables side-mission, which is actually a pre-Riddler “Enigma”, is not as fun. You’re finding “Datapacks” rather than question mark-shaped Trophies, plus the really fun riddles and challenging deathtrap rooms have been stripped out entirely. Furthermore it has to be said that Gotham City itself is just not as well designed as previous games. Both of Rocksteady’s games felt like the developer had polished the levels to absolute perfection, so there was always something of interest to distract you or a building to grapple onto for quick and easy access. Arkham Origins is frankly not as polished. There are a number of areas, such as under the bridge that connects both sides of Gotham, where if you end up on the ground you have no choice but to just run for ages until you find a grapple spot. There are also many buildings and places you just can’t grapple up on for no reason at all, like the Power Plant or the two ends of the bridge. Despite being twice the size of Arkham City Origins’ Gotham simply isn’t as fun to get around in, and side missions aren’t as varied either – they’re either Chase The Villain or Just Beat Up Loads of Guys For God’s Sake.

And speaking of polish, it has to be said that currently Batman: Arkham Origins is one of the buggiest AAA games I’ve ever played. People complain about Bethesda or Rockstar’s open-world titles but I’ve never encountered any significant bugs with any of their games. Arkham Origins though? I’ve personally seen enemies get stuck permanently on scenery (including bosses), a bug that stops you entering a vent which makes the Enigma Burnley Comms Tower impossible (that can only be bypassed by exploiting a glitch), the Fast Travel cutscene freezing, cutscenes being stuttery and unwatchable unless you turn off DirectX11 in one of the .ini files, and my multiplayer progress getting completely reset when I didn’t go through the single-player menu to get to the Online section. Other players have reported characters becoming invisible, falling through the floor, or getting stuck on a raft (in a certain mission I won’t spoil) that consequently makes you unable to progress any further in the game. Through the help of the community I made it through the bugs but if you’re considering getting the game I personally advise waiting a few weeks for the patches to start flowing in.

Still, at least all versions are equally buggy, and the PC version comes out tops over the 360 and PS3 in several areas. Firstly since there’s no Xbox One/PS4 version the PC release with its DirectX11 textures, Tessalation, PhysX, and Next-Gen Tree Sway is definitely the pretty one to get. It’s also Steam now rather than the horrid Games For Windows Live, so DLC is easily purchased and playable, and patching is easier (and doesn’t take 45 minutes to implement like Arkham Asylum did). There’s also the vibrant and chatty community at your beck and call to help you out of any bug-related problems. Oh, and best of all add “-nostartupmovies” to your launch options and the game will automatically skip straight past all those many boring intro movies. PC FTW. I did admittedly play with an Xbox 360 pad though.

The final big new addition, although many gamers will scoff at it, is multiplayer. Developed by Brink’s Splash Damage, I’m sad to report that it’s actually pretty fun. It’s basically Domination, with two teams (in this case Bane’s Mercenaries and Joker’s Gang) attempting to control three points on a map, with XP earned over matches used to improve your weapons or items. The main selling points are the inclusion of Batman, Robin, Bane, and the Joker into the mix. As eight players make up the teams two randomly-chosen players control the Dynamic Duo and attempt to take down as many opponents as possible. By not only having to worry about the opposing team, ammo, grenades, and any traps around the area but also freaking Batman and Robin too it really makes matches highly suspenseful and fun.

Bane and Joker can be taken over by a player who gets to a certain door after a certain point in the match, but right now they’re a little unbalanced. I saw the Joker take on Batman, Robin, and two Bane gang members and kill them all, plus while Batman & Robin are randomly and fairly chosen (whoever played them in one match doesn’t get to be them in the next match) the super-villains get to be controlled by whoever was closest to the door. If I’m listing problems there’s already a contingent of players who are far too good at the online mode, matches dropping on the loading screen requiring a Ctrl-Alt-Delete out, if a player leaves in a match the whole thing is ruined, and finally it’s difficult to find people playing on PC – last night I tried to have a game and found I was the only person online in all of Europe! Nevertheless get through these problems and you’ll find the multiplayer enjoyable… if your progress doesn’t get reset of course.

Tee hee, I’ve put explosive gel next to the body! He’s in for a surprise!

It’s perhaps unfair to sum up Batman: Arkham Origins as Arkham City but not quite as good, but if the cowl fits… you know. Despite some slightly dodgy level design and a wide and varied array of show-stopping bugs however the Batman Arkham gameplay still shines brightly, with enough tweaks and new areas to make Origins a worthwhile purchase despite the déjà vu. Fortunately the story is excellent, with enough twists, nods to canon, and well-written characterisation to keep any Batman fan happy. Bane, Alfred, James Gordon and Batman himself get better deals than in either of Rocksteady’s titles. Finally the voice work is sublime, with Roger Craig Smith settling well into the younger angrier Batman (and occasionally even sounding like Christian Bale) and Troy Baker almost nearly infinitely close to being even better than Mark Hamill as the Joker. Oh, and Robert Costanzo is back playing Harvey Bullock from The Animated Series, hooray.

If you’re a Batman fan you should already have Batman: Arkham Origins, but anyone else might want to hold off a couple of weeks for some patches to come through. Even with the bugs though I enjoyed the game all the way through for the 15-20 hours it took me to finish (without having done all the side missions yet), and will once again be combing back-alleys and rooftops for those hidden Riddler/Enigma goodies before tackling the Challenge Maps and New Game Plus. Oh, and the multiplayer too if anyone’s actually online. So I’m not going to be wiping Arkham Origins from my hard drive just yet, but time will tell if it’s going to be a permanent fixture until the next game in the series...

All story related so I’ll keep quiet, but the Joker has a wonderful playable epiphany… that a certain psychiatrist takes completely the wrong way.

BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS VERDICT

If you’re a Batman fan you should already have Batman: Arkham Origins, but anyone else might want to hold off a couple of weeks for some patches to come through. Even with the bugs though I enjoyed the game all the way through for the 15-20 hours it took me to finish (without having done all the side missions yet), and will once again be combing back-alleys and rooftops for those hidden Riddler/Enigma goodies before tackling the Challenge Maps and New Game Plus. Oh, and the multiplayer too if anyone’s actually online. So I’m not going to be wiping Arkham Origins from my hard drive just yet, but time will tell if it’s going to be a permanent fixture until the next game in the series…

TOP GAME MOMENT

All story related so I’ll keep quiet, but the Joker has a wonderful playable epiphany… that a certain psychiatrist takes completely the wrong way.